Game Journalism - Unfit for purpose?

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Game Journalism - Unfit for purpose?


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@slimgrin It's not discussed here too much (at least I didn't noticed too much of it, others can say something different) But I guess it's not really a matter which should be focused in US or English speaking countries cause it could be a global thing sooner or later.
 

227

Forum veteran
Just saw this:


I can't wait for the gaming media to declare that this is just two male midgets wearing a paper mache woman costume. As a side note, why does everyone on the internet except for me have an awesome accent? So unfair. Anyway, the annotation at ~7:53 doesn't seem to work (for me, at least), but it leads here if you want to feel sick to your stomach.
 

Jupiter_on_Mars

Guest
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Since when is female sexiness an inherently bad thing anyway? But attractive male portrayal is what men feel good about? Last time I checked the beauty industry was mostly concentrating on women as customers, but I guess that is cause men force them to... Could we have more diversity in writing and are we tired of some of the lazy MALE sterotypes in games? Sure. Do we have that because we are sexist, women hating rapists? No. It is just easier to rehash than to come up with other story ideas. Also many of these games don't care about this part of the story. They just need some generic character then to either have no real story, just gameplay, or to make the story about something else, rather than the character you are playing.
 
In fairness, there's a disclaimer at the end of that opinion piece:

I don't buy that. A magazine-style website chooses to invite specific guest writers, and should know what their views are before inviting them, so even though that kind of disclaimer may protect them from legal retaliation, it doesn't give them any kind of shield against reader criticism. The only time I'd accept it as a valid disclaimer is when they explicitly say something like "this is a contoversial post, we know you may not agree, but we think you should be aware of the viewpoint".
 
@veleda - yeah, that comment definitely stood out, the article it linked to led me to some other very interesting ones, worth reading
 

Jupiter_on_Mars

Guest
I don't buy that. A magazine-style website chooses to invite specific guest writers, and should know what their views are before inviting them, so even though that kind of disclaimer may protect them from legal retaliation, it doesn't give them any kind of shield against reader criticism. The only time I'd accept it as a valid disclaimer is when they explicitly say something like "this is a contoversial post, we know you may not agree, but we think you should be aware of the viewpoint".

You're free not to buy it.

Be it as it may, there was a Polygon article on the very same issue and though by no means laudatory it was vastly different from this opinion piece. Draw your conclusions. What's said in this piece is open for contention regardless of whether it's Polygon-endorsed or not. Furthermore, Polygon can show its openness to contrarian points of view by inviting Thunderf00t to post an opinion piece there as well.

If anyone feels so strongly about Polygon's alleged editorial guidelines he or she should stop visiting there. It's the most effective message one can send. But I wish Polygon would take cues from, say, www.democracynow.org. There's no doubt this news show has an agenda, that it takes sides, that it seeks to promote a certain world view. There's no doubt in anyone's mind where DemocracyNow stands on the middle East issue, for example. Still, they regularly host debates between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli leading voices.

Got that Polygon?

Since when is female sexiness an inherently bad thing anyway? (...).

Absolutely.
There seems to be a suggestion that wanting someone for his or her looks alone is somehow wrong, reproachable. That it's not enough. That finding someone physically attractive and proceeding accordingly must - and not even down the line, but immediately - be superseded by an appreciation of his or her so-called inner qualities, those that supposedly transcend shallow and superficial considerations like beauty.

But, under the guise of deep, mature thought, this is just a puerile agenda that seeks to impose ideals borrowed from low grade romantic comedies onto reality.
 
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227

Forum veteran
I'm a serious hoarder when it comes to game screenshots, and I recently spent a little time combing through them to make a picture showing heroines or otherwise strong female characters in games. Can't really remember the reason behind that, but it's here and it's huge. Looking through it, I can't help but wonder how many of those would be condemned by SJW-types for just being solid characters who don't spin their femaleness into a social commentary. It'd be a shame for characters like that to disappear under the rising tide of those looking to be offended by taking everything as a statement.

Since when is female sexiness an inherently bad thing anyway? But attractive male portrayal is what men feel good about?
Right? That's the double standard that always drives me crazy, especially when the attractive male portrayal gets hand-waved away and called a male power fantasy. Anyone who thinks that the average guy gets an extra kick playing as the bastard child of He-Man and Conan the Barbarian needs a swift kick in the head. It's all unrealistic and seemingly meant to portray an "ideal" type of hero rather than being explicitly catered to the male gamer, and I'd go so far to say that the reoccurring "muscle man" thing is less of a power fantasy than an indication that some developers have no idea what physical traits are generally attractive to the opposite sex.
 
That Syrian chick is quite a firecracker. I hadn't heard of DiGRA. Spent some time perusing that "fun is political" document she links to. I wonder what would happen if someone with the wrong politics showed up at that meeting and started strategizing how to indoctrinate people through video games. I'm sure there would be a chorus of "not THOSE politics!"

Study by the University of Toronto shows that women who start to play shooter and puzzle games demonstrate remarkable improvement in spatial abilities, eliminating the gender gap that puts males ahead of them in these areas. Spatial skills are essential in engineering and other science fields, so to get more girls into those fields... they should play the very video games that Anita Sarkeesian et al. say contribute to the degradation of women.
http://www.psych.utoronto.ca/users/spence/Feng, Spence, & Pratt (in press).pdf (PDF link)
 
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So, considering the fact that CDPR is usually looked-down upon by progressive journalists and The Witcher has quite an opinion of a sexist, misogynistic title I wonder how this whole thing could affect the Witcher 3 release time.

I mean, looks like the SJW party is using all methods possible to shut down or ridicule those who do not fit in their agenda, and some developer and a oh-so-sexist game from this non-progressive slavic country might be an easy target.
 
So, considering the fact that CDPR is usually looked-down upon by progressive journalists and The Witcher has quite an opinion of a sexist, misogynistic title I wonder how this whole thing could affect the Witcher 3 release time.

I mean, looks like the SJW party is using all methods possible to shut down or ridicule those who do not fit in their agenda, and some developer and a oh-so-sexist game from this non-progressive slavic country might be an easy target.

I'm afraid it will affect it, especially if their movement gains traction. Close to release we might see more 'in depth' analysis of the games by Lana K and Anita and god knows who else considers themselves an educated critic. This is why I feel it's important for devs to take a stance and be more proactive so they don't get blindsided by these people when their games hit shelves. Problem with the Witcher is it's gaining popularity - TW3 is likely to garner huge mainstream coverage - and is very easy to misrepresent. We all know characters like Phillipa, Sile and Triss are proactive, intelligent women. But all they have to do is show Sile exploding or Triss magically undressing to garner a biased response from new viewers.
 
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That Syrian chick is quite a firecracker. I hadn't heard of DiGRA. Spent some time perusing that "fun is political" document she links to. I wonder what would happen if someone with the wrong politics showed up at that meeting and started strategizing how to indoctrinate people through video games. I'm sure there would be a chorus of "not THOSE politics!"

Study by the University of Toronto shows that women who start to play shooter and puzzle games demonstrate remarkable improvement in spatial abilities, eliminating the gender gap that puts males ahead of them in these areas. Spatial skills are essential in engineering and other science fields, so to get more girls into those fields... they should play the very video games that Anita Sarkeesian et al. say contribute to the degradation of women.
http://www.psych.utoronto.ca/users/spence/Feng, Spence, & Pratt (in press).pdf (PDF link)

That's bloody interesting, sounds like how knowledge swells cabbies brains in London. Course gaming press won't report on anything positive, or not fitting with their agenda.

Amazes me that a writer uses the term factual as an insult against Ms Sommers, says a bloody lot about SJF's and the truth.
 
Anthony "The Meme" Burch has entered the fray. Or re-entered rather as I didn't know he joined the anti gamergate coalition. Him being involved at all is news to me

I cannot for the life of me find the source but apparently he came out and said Gearbox paid IGN for reviews. There was a back and forth between Burch and Aristocrat on Twitter earlier with Randy "The Other False Shepherd, or Peter Molyneux II" Pitchford playing damage control.
 
It was on Twitter. He was making a sarcastic point that there was a much more direct corruption link in the GameJournoPros emails that everyone was ignoring because it didn't involve sex.
http://blogjob.com/oneangrygamer/20...outs-destructoid-corruption-polygon-nepotism/
http://attackongaming.com/gaming-ta...-destructoid-as-corrupt-in-wake-of-gamergate/

In other news, Gearbox's CEO also tells Internet Aristocrat that Erik Kain is "just a blogger" and that GamerGate fans are worth losing. The guy who wrote the sympathetic Slate article, David Auerbach, agrees with Erik Kain that this guy is a massive tool.
https://twitter.com/AuerbachKeller/status/513473585273638912

Of course, why would a developer who stole the art style of Borderlands and shat on their fans with Aliens: Colonial Marines be bothered about integrity? No doubt the slam on Erik Kain was because Kain exposed the former.
 
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